


Blue Crayon

by kbaycolt



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, M/M, PTSD, Soulmate AU, klaus-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-13 11:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18467587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbaycolt/pseuds/kbaycolt
Summary: "You are my blue crayon, the one I never have enough of, the one I use to color my sky."The world is in black and white until you meet your soulmate, then it's said that colors are supposed to explode in your vision, lighting up your life to the day your soulmate dies.Klaus Hargreeves never expected to meet his soulmate. Little did he know, an accidental trip to Vietnam would change that.





	Blue Crayon

Klaus Hargreeves had resolved himself to never finding his soulmate. One in a million chance of discovering the person who would complete him; odds he knew Number Five wouldn't gamble with. Then why should he?

Why should Klaus waste his life worrying about shading his greys with this fantasy of 'color'? Why should he when those little white pills give him enough of a trip?

But against all odds, he'd gotten sober, and how he was sitting on a train, covered in blood and panting, clutching a briefcase to his chest. He fumbled with the clasps, having troubling distinguishing between the different locks. Finally, he managed to flick them open, when a squeezing sensation yanked him through the darkness.

With a jolt, he landed on the ground of a tent. Gunshots rang in his ears, the echoes of fighting outside making him dizzy. He glanced around in wild confusion, gripping the briefcase close, when he locked eyes with someone.

His world _erupted_.

The blacks and greys flashed away in an instant, suddenly filled with vibrant, pulsing lights, so unfamiliar, straining his eyes to look at, but the only thing he could see clearly was a bright, soft color inked in a young man's irises, gentle and warm as they peered at Klaus in equal bewilderment.

'Soulmate' was the only word that registered.

"You...?" Klaus trailed off in shock, spluttering as he whirled around, inspecting his new surroundings. So many strange colors to see, a euphoria brimming in his heart higher than any drug. "You're my-"

He never got the chance to finish his sentence.

Something exploded outside, and suddenly everyone was rushing around and yelling, one man ordering the rest to get dressed and ready, Klaus scrambling to his feet in confusion as a hard hat was slapped onto his head and he was struggling into a pair of camo pants.

A few days later, he was on a bus with the briefcase tucked under his seat, marveling at the vibrant scenery outside and the trees he was pretty sure were green. The sky was blue, he knew that, and the ground was brown, but brown couldn't be used to describe every shade of brown and white and red in the soil.

A hand touched his shoulder.

"Hey," another soldier said. Klaus felt warmth flush in his cheeks as he met the eyes of his soulmate. "We're soulmates, huh?"

"Y-Yeah."

"I'm Dave."

"Klaus."

"The colors are amazing, aren't they?"

"... yeah. Yeah, they are."

* * *

Being drunk was _so_ much better with color. The lights buzzed and dimmed, the disco ball casting glittering sunspots all around the pulsing room, a hazy sheen coating the reddish floors and warm golden liquor. Klaus' dog tags glinted silver. The sky was inky black. So many colors.

And somehow, they all paled in comparison to the blue in Dave's eyes, bright and clear like a mountain spring.

Dave was everywhere, a tangle of limbs and warm skin, chapped lips pressed against his own, heat arcing through him as Klaus learned that love was the color of sapphires.

* * *

Shots ringing out in hot flashes of orange and white, the trees in the dark turning into a faded green, the hard-packed soil beneath them a dark brown. Gunfire roared over their heads.

"Whew! Christ on a cracker!" Klaus yelled. "That was a close one, huh Dave?"

Silence. Klaus nudged him.

"Dave?"

Dave's grip on his gun slackened. Klaus rolled him over to find his eyes fluttering shut and scarlet, crimson blood staining his shirt, dark and terribly red. Klaus' hands fumbled to cover the wound.

"MEDIC!" Klaus screamed, his fingers warm with blood. "Hey! Dave, look at me. Look at me. Okay?"

Dave spluttered and choked, and Klaus was all-too aware of the color leeching from his surroundings, the red splattering his hands fading to a dull grey.

"Oh, damnit," Klaus whispered. "MEDIC! Dave, look at me, look at me. Hey, hey, hey..."

Blue, impossibly blue eyes wide and terrified, gazing up at him even as everything else dulled, his beautiful blue eyes remained.

"Hey, it's okay," Klaus murmured, cupping Dave's head in his hands, threading his fingers through scraggly blonde hair and pressing their foreheads together. "Hey. _Hey._ Please, please, _please_ stay with me, Dave..." His voice broke. The wonderful colors drained out of his world as Dave's life drained away. "Stay with me, no, no, _no, no, no!"_

Dave's blue eyes, so beautiful and perfect, the only color Klaus had ever cared about, fluttered shut.

"Damnit, I need a medic!" Klaus shouted, but his voice cracked and morphed into a desperate sob when he realized his world was fully black and white.

The colors were gone.

His Dave was gone.

And with his hands slipping in grey blood and the patterns of his shirt dulling to black and white, Klaus learned the color of death was deep, crimson red.


End file.
